Why the “Palestine Victory Collective” is still in the State’s sights

In a press release published on its website on October 7, the day of the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra clearly welcomed these acts of barbarism during which 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed. been killed. “Despite more than 75 years of colonization, the Palestinian people live and resist!” proudly headlines the collective, in a text still online more than two weeks after the events, while details on the nature of the atrocities committed have been widely disseminated.

“On a scale unprecedented in decades, this operation carried out by the Al Qassam Brigades (the military wing of Hamas) from the Gaza Strip is a demonstration of force of the capabilities of the resistance and exposes the fallibility of the Zionist project », We can read, in an enthusiastic tone, in this press release. “This offensive reaffirms the clear rejection of colonization and occupation on the part of the Palestinian people. [...] This surprise attack [...] is the fruit of 75 years of colonization and ethnic cleansing,” add the pro-Palestinian activists.

Zealous support for Hamas which has not escaped the Minister of the Interior, who is determined to dissolve the Palestine Vaincra Collective, despite a first setback before the Council of State last year. Gérald Darmanin already announced on October 14 that he had brought the actions committed by the collective before the courts: “I took the responsibility of addressing 11 article 40 [in reference to the article of the Code of Criminal Procedure which allows the authorities, public officers or civil servants to report to the public prosecutor offenses of which they are aware] on associations making anti-Semitic remarks, advocating terrorism or supporting the Hamas terrorist movement, among which the Collectif Palestine Vaincra” he had declared at a press conference. “I asked the services of the Ministry of the Interior to work on the dissolution of collectives relaying or sometimes financing [...] Hamas or movements around Hamas,” he added.

A few days later, on October 24, Gérald Darmanin clarified during questions to the government in the National Assembly that he still hopes to obtain the dissolution of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra. This was pronounced by the President of the Republic, on the proposal of the Minister of the Interior, by a decree of March 9, 2022. But, seized of an interim suspension, the Council of State then canceled this dissolution on April 28, 2022. The same day, the administrative judge was seized of two appeals: that of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra and that of the Palestine Action Committee. But the latter had filed an interim release, therefore offering the Council of State the possibility of definitively suspending the dissolution procedure. The fate of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra is not yet sealed: the Council of State must still rule on the merits, during a hearing which Beauvau hopes will take place "in the coming weeks", without doubt at the end of the year or at the beginning of next year.

Also read: Guillaume Tabard: “Gérald Darmanin, a Minister of the Interior not yet feared or admired”

Already in 2022, the decree prepared by the services of the Ministry of the Interior considered that the dissolution of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra was justified by the fact that it “regularly calls for discrimination and hatred towards Israel and Israelis through boycott campaigns”; and that in addition it “incites hatred, discrimination and violence against people because of their Jewish origin, supports and incites the actions of organizations recognized as terrorists”.

Beauvau's services relied in particular on hateful comments published under the collective's publications on social networks, and which had not been moderated or deleted by those responsible for the collective. For example, regarding Israel: “throw Iskanders [ballistic missiles] in their faces” or even “it will be our turn to puncture them, it’s dogs” (sic).

Moreover, the government considers the Collectif Palestine Vaincra as a “de facto group”, arguing that it has a charter and a website, operates in a hierarchical structure, has an office, a manager and a treasurer. The hearing before the Council of State established that the collective brings together “around fifteen people established in Toulouse” and “has set itself the goal of providing support to the Palestinian cause”.

However, the collective's lawyers, Me Lionel Crusoé and Me Cécile Brandely, obtained from the Council of State a suspension of the execution of the decree of dissolution: the judge of the summary judgment considers in particular in his decision that the calls to boycott Israel fall within of freedom of expression, that the positions taken by the Collectif Palestine Vaincra on the Middle East do not constitute incitement to terrorism, and that the comments published on Facebook do not come from members of the collective.

Also read: Hamas attack on Israel: “The NPA and the Indigenous Peoples of the Republic must be sanctioned for advocating terrorism”

Gérald Darmanin, therefore, does not admit defeat and in Beauvau, we very much hope that the new incriminating documents placed in the file will this time serve to obtain once and for all the dissolution of the collective, which never stops been talked about since the attack on October 7.

What exactly is the place of the Collectif Palestine Vaincra within the sometimes inextricable nebula of associations and small groups making up the mosaic of the anti-Zionist far left? It is sometimes difficult to say because the links between each entity are so close and the borders are so confusing. If it was officially created in Toulouse in 2019, the Collectif Palestine Vaincra communicates for example with a Twitter account created in 2012, and a Facebook page “very active since 2015”, notes the dissolution decree.

Le Point noted in particular that in 2021, the collective had raised €6,000 in donations for the benefit of a supposedly humanitarian association, the Children of the Martyr, itself affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the European Union classed as a terrorist.

On its Telegram channel, the Palestine Vaincra Collective has been increasing calls for demonstrations in support of Gaza since October 7: although most of these demonstrations are not organized by the collective, it nevertheless calls for people to join and associate with them. Some, however, are directly his fault, such as the demonstration planned for Wednesday October 25 in Toulouse, and ultimately banned by the prefect. The collective claims on Telegram to have carried out, despite the failure of its appeal, wild collages in several districts of Toulouse to put up posters featuring the collective's logo. On one of them, we read a call to financially help the Al-Awda hospital in Gaza, accompanied by a QR code. Donations are channeled through the Samidoun network, an NGO created in 2011 to help Palestinian prisoners, and to which the Collectif Palestine Vaincra is affiliated.

The Samidoun network, considered terrorist by Israel, has been in the sights of Western authorities for several years. Its coordinator in Germany, Masar Badil, a Palestinian in exile, is threatened with having his residence permit withdrawn because of his activism within Samidoun. In Belgium, the mere presence of activists from Samidoun, reputed to be close to the leaders of Hamas, in demonstrations in support of Palestine, was enough to dissuade left-wing unions like the Belgian General Labor Federation (FGTB), although openly in solidarity with the Palestinian cause, to participate in the rally.